1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel cell vehicle. In greater detail, the present invention relates to a fuel cell vehicle having a plurality of startup triggers.
2. Related Art
In recent years, fuel cell vehicles equipped with a fuel cell system as a power source have come to attract attention. A fuel cell system includes, for example, a fuel cell that generates electricity by creating a chemical reaction of a reactant gas, a reactant gas supply device supplies reactant gas through a reactant gas channel to a fuel cell, and a control device that controls this reactant gas supply device.
The fuel cell has, for example, a stack structure in which tens to hundreds of cells are layered. Here, each cell is constituted by a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) sandwiched by a pair of separators, in which the membrane-electrode assembly is constituted by two electrodes, an anode (positive electrode) and a cathode (negative electrode), and a solid polymer electrolyte membrane sandwiched by these electrodes.
When hydrogen gas is supplied as a reactant gas to the anode of these fuel cells, and air containing oxygen is supplied as a reactant gas to the cathode, electricity is generated by electrochemical reaction. Since what is generated at the time of electricity generation is basically only nonhazardous water, from the perspectives of the effect on the environment and usage efficiency, fuel cells have come to attract attention.
Incidentally, in an interior of a fuel cell during stopping of electricity generation, as mentioned above, there are cases in which water generated during electricity generation, or water generated by condensation, may accumulate. In a state in which water has accumulated in the interior in this way, if the fuel cell is neglected in low-temperature conditions, the interior of the fuel cell may freeze, necessitating a long warm-up time when activating the fuel cell.
Therefore, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-203665, in order to prevent an interior of a fuel cell from freezing, a fuel cell system is proposed in which, during a period of stopping of electricity generation of a fuel cell, the system scavenges the interior of a fuel cell using air. In the fuel cell system, even during a period of stopping electricity generation, the system is periodically started up. When the system is started up, it detects the ambient air temperature, and in a case in which this ambient air temperature is equal to or below a prescribed temperature, scavenging processing, in which air is circulated in, and water is removed from, the interior of the fuel cell, is performed.
When the fuel cell system disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-203665 is equipped in a vehicle as a power source, during a period of stopping of electricity generation, i.e., during stopping of the vehicle, electricity for the purpose of periodically starting up or performing scavenging processing for the fuel cell system is supplied by a battery that is charged during a period of electricity generation, i.e., during driving of the vehicle. Since electricity of the battery is also used when starting electricity generation of the fuel cell, development of a fuel cell vehicle that has an as much as possible lower reduction in the charge capacity of the battery during a time of stopping of a vehicle, as mentioned above, has been desired.